Critical Analysis: UK Call Centre in Japan - HRM & Culture

This report provides a critical evaluation of the cultural and HRM challenges faced by a UK-based call center company operating in Japan. The introduction defines international HRM and its strategic importance. The main body delves into specific cultural challenges, such as age and status, dress code, bowing customs, and relationship-building, offering solutions like the functional theory of culture to foster a positive work environment. It then analyzes HRM issues including traditional hiring practices, complex business operations, talent pool inadequacies, and the need to embrace diversity. The report suggests the application of the Harvard framework of HRM to address these challenges. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of both cultural and HRM factors for successful international business operations. This report aims to provide valuable insights for businesses navigating the complexities of international expansion, particularly in the context of call center operations in Japan. The report also highlights the importance of adapting HR strategies to align with local cultural norms and business practices to ensure effective workforce management and achieve organizational goals.

BSc (Hons) Business Management Top up
BMP6003
International HRM
Critical evaluation of cultural and HRM
issues for a UK
business locating a call centre in Japan

Contents
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of cultural challenges that companies of UK requires to take into
consideration when location a call centre operation in Japan..............................................1
Critical analysis of HRM challenges which companies of UK needs to take into
consideration when locating a call centre practice in Japan.................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
International human resource management is considered to be a term which is used for
companies in order to manage their human resource practices on international level (Smith,
Leung and Seekamp, 2021). Generally international Human Resource Management is concerned
with global knowledge as well as understanding of Human resource operations in a company. As
international Human Resource Management basically a both functional as well as strategic
resemblance of Human Resource Management where it performs various activities which is
related to business. As in order to perform business practices across global borders it is necessary
for companies to manage their human resource activities at international level so that their
effectiveness and consistency could be maintained at workplace and goals could be achieved on
time (Yoon, 2021). As call centre operations are considered to be a centralised office that could
be used for receiving as well as transmitting a wide volume of enquiries that are carried away by
telephones. At this report it is based on international HRM of impact call centre which is located
in United Kingdom and deals in providing solutions. This report includes critical evaluation of
cultural challenges which companies of United Kingdom required to take into consideration
while carrying out their business practices in Japan, critical analysis of HRM issues that
companies required to take into consideration while carrying out their tractors in Japan along
with its conclusion.
MAIN BODY
Critical evaluation of cultural challenges that companies of UK requires to take into
consideration when location a call centre operation in Japan.
In order to carry on business operations in Japan on international level their various cultural
challenges which could be faced by companies of UK in order to run their business in terms of
call centre operations. As every country has different culture ethics and beliefs that are followed
by companies in order to sustain their business practices in that country. In order to perform
business practices on international level then only they could be able to sustain their practices in
their markets (Morphy, 2021). As in terms of carrying out business practices of call centre
operations in Japan companies of UK like impact call centre should ensure that their cultural
believes are to be according to Japanese market. And there are some cultural issues which could
be considered by companies in order to perform their practices in Japan which are as follows:
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 Age as well as status: As Japanese market generally follows up a culture belief of
respecting for age as well as status that are considered to be an essential factor of
Japanese culture (Liu and Zheng, 2021). As the following up with and hierarchy that
could affect factors of their social interaction. As without having respect in terms of age
as well as status companies of UK could not be able to sustain their position in Japanese
market and their culture is basically concerned with having respect in terms of treating
well their employees.
 Essential dress code: As essential dress code could be considered as a cultural challenge
for companies of UK in order to run their business practices as a cause and operation in
Japan. As cultural belief of Japan basically follows up dress code while working in
companies (Anastasiou and Garametsi, 2021). As generally lacks in having flexibility in
their working environment which would prove to be a challenge for companies in order
to run call centre operations in Japanese market.
 Bowing and handshakes: As cultural belief of Japan basically follows up a practice of
bowing as well as handshakes on meetings with business partners on corporate world. As
there is a challenge of lacking in flexibility of business environment which could be faced
by a challenge for companies of UK as they are generally acceptable with having flexible
working hours with relaxed environment and Japanese market is just opposite of UK
market so companies of UK could find it difficult in terms of carrying out their call centre
operations with greeting to their seniors.
 Building relationships: As which factor is considered to be another challenge that could
be taken into consideration by companies of UK as Japanese market as well as companies
takes time in order to build relationship in terms of communicating as well as working
with a team. So it becomes challenging for companies of UK in order to perform their
call centre operations in Japanese market in terms of creating out Kamal relationships
among employees as well as staff members to run their business practices effectively
along with maintaining an interconnection between them so that they could be able to
work within a team (Andersén and Ljungkvist, 2021).
As in order to resolve these cultural issues various cultural theories could be used by
company in order to have effective culture of working environment as cultural theories generally
helps in utilising various concept that could be drawn from social anthropology, company's
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theories as well as sociology which could be able to determine various social as well as cultural
bias that could affect various policies and could determine various elements which could be used
by companies in order to have success in their working environment of Management operation
(Godson, Faizan and Sanjeevi, 2021). And for that in terms of carrying out call centre operation
in Japanese market functional theory of culture could be used as a HRM practice by companies
in order to have effective culture.
Structural functionalism theory is considered to be a framework that could cease and
identify society as a complex system along with it works in promoting stability of business. As
this approach helps in identifying micro level orientation that is wide focus of having social
structure as well as social functions. As theory of functionalism generally addresses society as a
whole in terms of carrying out functions as a constituent element that are based on norms,
customs, values as well as institutions (Kolvereid and Åmo, 2021). It is also known as structural
functional theory helps in growing out success of company by dealing with societal values. In
terms of carrying out business practices of call centre operations in Japan companies of UK like
impact call centre could use this theory in their business operations in order to launch their
business in Japan so that their societal values could be determined as well as they could be able
to generate higher amount of employees that have various believes and carries their work on
function level that are based on societal structure which could lead to have success and
development. There are certain positive as well as negative factors which could be carried out by
using this theory that are as follows:
Positive factor:
As theory of functionalism basically believes in having positive functions in order to have
success in business practices so it is beneficial for impact call centre along with companies of
UK to use this framework so that they could easily get adapted towards cultural environment of
Japan (Fryczyńska, 2021).
Negative factor:
This theory sometimes not effective for dealing up various societal challenges that are arised
in call centres operations in Japanese market which could lead to have in efficiency of work and
could lead to rise in conflict among employees.
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Critical analysis of HRM challenges which companies of UK needs to take into
consideration when locating a call centre practice in Japan.
It has been critically evaluated that there are certain human resource management challenges
which had to be faced by companies on regular basis while carrying their business practices at
international level (Huesmann and Calveley, 2021). As these challenges are to be resolved on
regular basis so that companies would be able to resolve and sustain their business practices on
global boundaries. As by taking off example off impact call centre there are various HRM issues
that are to be taken into consideration while locating a call centre business in Japan are as
follows:
 Traditional hiring practices: As human resource challenge which is faced by company
that are to be considered by them in order to perform their business practices in Japan is
that they are basically focused on using traditional hiring practices of their employees as
they follow and hire fresh employees with their skills and working environment of Japan
generally lacks in having flexibility in terms of adapting changes that are required in
market (Sorsa, 2021). In order to carry call centre operations company should consider
this practice for hiring their employees in Japan so that they could be get adaptable of
their business practices and could sustain in markets.
 Complex business operations: As working surroundings of Japan is using very complex
business practices that deals in having vertical society, age difference as well as in
seniority which are sacrosanct (Lelloltery, Rumanta and Kunda, 2021). As these practices
could prove to be demotivating for companies of UK in order to consider them for having
young, skilled as well as creative employees that could not be able to get ahead which are
based on skills are known as there are various personal desires which could create a
barrier in carrying out business practices of call centre.
 Use of inadequate talent pool: As according to various surveys it has been analysed that
most of person a companies that are operating in Japan are basically affected by their
talent shortages. As same companies of UK such as impact call centre challenge of
employee shortages in terms of of operating their business practices in Japan as they are
suffering for searching out effective talent in terms of employees in emerging
technologies which are full of artificial intelligence, financial planning analysis along
with web analytics. As companies that are operating in Japan as a call centre are not able
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to carry out their business practices properly due to having inadequate talent pool with a
shortages of employees.
 Embracing diversity: As companies of UK like impactful centre could face issue of
HRM with embracing diversity in terms of working population which are basically
decreasing in Japan as Japan is embracing their diversity as well as inclusion in order to
fulfil their goal of sustainable economic growth. So in that case they could not be able to
perform their business practices in an effective manner in order to perform call centre
operations in Japan as there are various diversities issues which are to be carried by
population of their policies in terms of inclusion as well as flexible working environment
(Goby and Karimova, 2021).
In order to carry up business practices as a call centre in Japan companies of UK should
consider various models as well as frameworks which could be used by them in order to perform
their practices at international level so that they both could be achieved in a specific time period.
In terms of carrying out business operation of call centre in Japan how would model of
international human resource management could be used by companies.
As Harvard framework of human resource management is basically consisting of five
elements which consists of stakeholder interest where it includes shareholders, employee groups,
government as well as other members that could define their interest in Human Resource
Management policies in order to formulate various strategies. Next factor is considered to be
situation factor that could influence interest of situation factors which could consists of various
work force nature along with unions so that they could create an effective working environment.
As situation factors as when a stakeholder interest basically influenced by other element of
Harvard framework is which is HRM policies which are said to be core HR operations such as
dealing with carrying out process of recruitment, training as well as reward system to their
employees (Falletta, 2021). As when atom policies are formulated they could lead in having
effective as well as positive human resource management reserves which could consist of
employee retention, cost effectiveness as well as competence of companies. At last as when the
positive HRM results are acquire it could lead to have long-term consequences which could be
individual, organizational as well as societal. This model is an international human resource
management model which could be a holistic approach that is beneficial for companies in order
to carry out their international business practices.
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Also along with that terms of carrying out business operations of call centre in Japan
company of UK which is impact for centre could use Harvard framework of human resource in
their operation so that they could be able to analyse various factors which could affect their
business practices in terms of carrying out their practices in Japanese market. As by using this
model there are certain positive as well as negative impact that are as follows:
Positive factor:
As this theory is beneficial in terms of identifying various HRM policies which could be
used by Japanese market in order to carry out their business and according to that company could
be able to formulate their strategy in terms of sustaining their marketplace along with increasing
their profitability ratio.
Negative factor:
As model generally ignores crucial HRM approaches that print out more social offering
method along with it leads to increase in having conflict at workplace which could result in
having failure of business operations as well as leads to have result in poor productivity of call
centre operation in carrying out business practices in Japan (Ali and Anwar, 2021).
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from above report that international human resource practices are
considered to be set of business practices which are used by companies in order to manage their
human resource operations in terms of carrying out their business operations at international
level be on their global limits. It is essential for companies to manage their operations on
constant level so their human resource activities on global borders could be carried in an
effective way in order to achieve goals within a specified period of time. As report explains
about critical evaluation of various cultural issues which could be arise in international market
and companies of UK need to take into consideration while carrying out their business practice
as a call centre operation in different country which is Japan. Also along with that there are some
human resource challenges which could be faced by company in order to carry out their
international business practices so for that this report explains about various human resource
challenges that could be taken into consideration for carrying out practices in Japan could lead a
positive as well as negative impact on business practices by identifying their positive points that
could be taken into consideration while carrying out business practices in an effective way. As in
order to have effective international human resource management there are some of the
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recommendations which could be provided to companies that could help them in improving their
business practices which are as follows:
 As companies should use effective human resources strategies in terms of hiring their
employees according to their requirement as well as customer’s demand so that their
practices could be formulated according to global practices of various countries.
 Companies should ensure that their work practices are to be according to cultural trends
of various countries as in order to carry out business operation in Japan companies should
ensure that their cultural elements are to be according to countries factors as well as
regulations of government.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Falletta, S.V., 2021. 10-step-evaluation for training and performance improvement: authored by
Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications, 2019, 1–332
pp., $85.00 (Paper), ISBN 978-1-5543-2396-1.
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Satisfaction. Human Resource Management/Zarzadzanie Zasobami Ludzkimi.
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development based on natural resource management: Case study in Kotania Bay,
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